Barbara Taylor Bradford:  It's lovely to be here again talking to you about my books, and also the CBS film called "A Secret Affair," from my book of the same name.

Question:  Do any parts of your books reflect any parts of your life?

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  The books I write really do not reflect my life, inasmuch as I do not write about myself. But obviously, to be an author you have to have opinions, so many of the opinions in the books, in fact most of them, are mine, even though they are part of the character's philosophy or dialogue. So in that way, yes, the books are very personal. But I'm not writing about the way Barbara Taylor Bradford lives.

Question:  Is it hard to write romance novels? Don't you ever run out of ideas? 

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  I don't actually write novels which fit into the category called romance, per se. There are indeed many romantic elements in my books, but they are not romances. The book I am currently writing is about a woman photojournalist who is a war photographer. I have written about television correspondents in danger, women at risk in their work in many areas. I actually write modern dramatic fiction for women, although some of the novels do touch on history, such as my book "The Women in His Life," which actually traced 50 years of this century and what happened in it. So, I do not run out of ideas because basically I am writing books that are very different, in the sense that each one is quite different to the one that has been written before. I don't use a formula for my books, which is really what romance fiction is.

Question:  I recently saw "A Woman of Substance" on video and enjoyed it very much. Are the other movies in the trilogy available on video?

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  "A Woman of Substance" was just acquired by a video company in the United States. And I believe they are probably going to acquire "Hold the Dream," which was the sequel to "A Woman of Substance."  And then the sequel to that called "To Be the Best." I think if you look in your video catalogues you will see announcements as to when these will be available. In Europe, you can buy all nine of the movies or miniseries which have been made of my books.

Question:  After you published your first book, how happy were you to have accomplished such a goal? 

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  I wrote a number of nonfiction books before I wrote "A Woman of Substance," which was my first novel. I was very happy that this piece of fiction was published because I actually started writing fiction when I was 7 years old. I sold my first short story to a children's magazine when I was 10 years old, and then did not write another piece of fiction for 30 years, since I spent most of my life as a journalist. Actually, I would say I was thrilled rather than happy, because it was an accomplishment to write that very long and complicated novel which traced 68 years of a woman's life and also the creation of a family dynasty, a great business empire, and also included historical events from the early 1900s up until 1968-69.

Question:  How did you get into writing?

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  I started writing when I was a child growing up in England, and actually wrote in my school exercise books when I was a very young girl. I sold my first short story when I was 10, and in a way never looked back. When I was 16, I went to work on a newspaper and worked as a journalist even after I married and came to live in America. So you could say in a sense I was born into it, because I was so young when I started.

Question:  Do you enjoy being a screenwriter? 

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not a screenwriter. I am a novelist, and although many of my books are brought to the television screen, I do not write the screenplay. I did write one miniseries under great pressure from my husband, who was the producer, because filming was to start in a month and there was no viable script. After that, whenever asked to write one of my books as a teleplay, I said thanks but no thanks. It's a very different craft, and I prefer to write novels.

Question:  Who are some of your favorite authors? 

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  Some of my favorite authors include those writing suspense, such as Frederick Forsyth, Wilbur Smith, John Le Carre. I also like to read biography, history, and I frequently read both English and American classics. I love the books of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and also Collette, who is French, and from today, I enjoy the books of the British writer Susan Howatch.

Question:  What is your daily routine like? Do you try and do a certain number of pages a day?

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  My daily routine when I am writing a book is very orderly. I think that most writers have to have a very tidy and organized mind, because the author is organizing information and people. So my working day begins every day at 6AM when I am writing a book. I am at my desk by 6 and I stay there until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Of course you are not writing all that time, but thinking and working out characters, plot, dialogue and all of [the] things you need in a book to make it work. I do 
stop for half an hour at lunchtime to eat something, but for the most part I do keep going in that room, which is my office. I also have an outline of the book, which is actually a series of notes, so that I know what goes into each section of the book. I also keep a corkboard handy on which I stick a lot of pertinent information so that it's there whenever I need it, such as the ages of people, where they were born, minor characters whom we tend to forget. The glass of wine isn't until 7 o'clock!

Tvgchat:  Thanks for coming to chat with us tonight, Ms. Bradford. We wish you the best of success with "A Secret Affair," and all of your future novels! 

Barbara Taylor Bradford:  Thank you!

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